PS Plus Essential Games for November 2023 Announced

I’m not the type to complain about free games so l I’ll just say, these sure are some free games.

I generally don't whine over PS+ games because I have enough of a backlog to not care, but damn that's a terrible month.
Mafia II DE : 72 on metacritic
Aliens Fireteam Elite : 69 on metacritic

Really scraping the barrel here...

Hopefully the third games good. Already played mafia 2 and back for blood left a bad taste so don't know if I want to play any co-op horde shooters anytime soon.

Oh God, how could they...

Did the leakers take on job losses as well? Sure came in late this month.

Mafia 2 is brilliant to be fair. Insanely janky and very much dated but I loved it. Really need to get some of those videos of the glitches I experienced off the hard drive, they’re the funny kind rather than the annoying kind.

Mafia 2 is the best Mafia for me, better than Mafia 1 remake. Got so many in my backlog library that I'm not even sure if I've already purchased Mafia 2 remastered

That's a strong line-up
Aliens Fireteam is a very fun co-op tps and mafia 2 is the best mafia game imo, just a terrible remaster.

I was about to say I was looking forward to trying the Aliens game, but I was thinking of Aliens: Dark Descent

Mafia 2 is good for anyone who still hasn't played it, but I can't think too many people who are interested won't have found time in the past 12+ years to give it a go.

@nessisonett agreed with mafia. Loved it on ps3, but not so much second time on ps4. I'd highly suggest to anyone coming into gaming around this time to at least give it a try. I found it a more grounded GTA. Only downsides are the jankyness and some stereotypical Italian American references... but as is often the excuse, it's a product of its time; both developed and setting.

@Olmaz both are pretty good games. Not even remotely bottom of the barrel titles.

This is really gonna be a month where the third game carries this month or makes it a nothing burger of a month

@nessisonett you think they're funny?

Meh no interest in these. Already have the mafia trilogy

I have Mafia 2 and have no interest in the Aliens game. Oh well, hopefully the 3rd game is good. To be honest, even if it is, I probably still won't get beyond adding it my library anyway!

I got all excited then but it's the wrong Aliens game for me. Isn't Mafia 2 already free on Extra as part of the trilogy already? Seems a bit sneaky.

Another crappy month. And the third game is The Breakers? No thanks.

Nothing for me. All the Alan Wake 2 hype got me lamenting how I didn’t pick up control when it was released for PS+.

If it was the other aliens game may have given it a go. A pretty lacklustre month for me personally.

Hopefully the extras and premium game date better this month.

I've got plenty to play at the moment so I'm not overly fussed about these, but still... Not the best selection

@Dusk_Actual Really? Ok, would you care in selling me these games? Everything that I heard is this :

• Mafia II was pretty good 13 years ago, but today even the remaster feels very dated
• Aliens Fireteam Elite is a below average team shooter that wouldn't be on anyone's radar without the Alien franchise stamp

But since I haven't played any of these games, I may have the wrong impression. What does make you say these games "pretty good"?

I'll play Mafia II, completed the first one when they gave it on Essential previously and I was always deciding whether to buy the second one or not when it went on sale.

Good month for me based on that game alone. Not interested in the multiplayer Alien game; I guess the Dragon Ball one could be something to try out a couple times when friends come over.

@RBRTMNZ and they had the balls to increase ps plus price

@Jayslow I thought that doctors recommended taking a leak after getting laid off to avoid UTI?

Im still really confused about what Breakers actually is.

Gotta be the worst month I've seen all year. I may add Mafia to my library, but the rest is pure trash.

Was looking at buying aliens at some point. Love the franchise. Not the best but not the worst month.

I thought that they shut down the servers for that dragon ball game, because no person ever asked for an asymmetric Dragonball Multiplayer game.

Unfortunately "Complete Junk" month...

@MikeOrator I'm totally on board for November and have my physical copy pre-ordered from Japan.

Hopefully, I will have some fun with Dragonball breakers and Aliens. My Hero Ultra Rumble by Namco is fun although there are a few Gacha elements. These are fun quick short burst games.

@MikeOrator like dragon is not only big game coming out this month most people probably will be playing Mario rpg or persona 5 tactics

@pharos_haven day by daylight but with dragon ball

Poor month for me, as I already own the mafia game and not really any interest in the other 2. Come on December!

Disappointed.

I'll be playing on xbox for a while.

not too bad, I guess - might check out the Aliens game

@Olmaz what exactly do you expect for your monthly essential games?

And I hardly need to sell you on an opinion, especially since you e made your mind up already

Sony tries hard here to temp me extending my PS Plus subscription.

Didn't they increase the subscription prices to provide more quality?
Where's the quality in these titles?

@RBRTMNZ they are rented games, not free

Sony price increases for better games than give us this🤔Its ok.not a huge fan of dragon ball.and the other 2 could of been better.may add them in my library but i will pass on dragon ball.word up son

Handy as I'm about to get rid of my physical Mafia Trilogy, along with a bunch of other physical media, and I don't really want to buy or own Mafia 2 digitally, but it's the only one I've not played, weirdly.

Are they making another Mafia game, do we know?

A 4/10 and two 6/10s. Nice. Everything we hoped for after the extreme price changes.

The last few times I tried to jump into Aliens Fireteam Elite, I couldn't matchmake with anyone. And because it has a gear score system, it's hard to progress further into the story

@tameshiyaku does the Japanese copy have English subtitles as I would love a physical.

Nothing for me here. Not necessarily "bad" games, but not in my wheel house at all.

@Dusk_Actual I expect from Essentials the same level of quality I was getting in the PS3 era. A good mix of high ranking AAA, AA and indie games.

If I had "made my mind", as you say, would I be asking for other's opinions? Would I admit I may be wrong?

You don't "need" to do anything, but just saying "you're wrong" to someone doesn't really get the conversation going...

These would be fine before the price hike. But since there has been a price hike the games have been very medicore. I am not sure why they havent thrown in a first party game in like Ratchet, Returnal or Last of Us 2 or Last of us part 1 just to quell some disappointment.

And they want $160 a year for this swill?

@Pranwell mafia 2 is good,ignore the review....its a great game which I played through on ps3 and the remaster and I only suffered a couple of bugs.Everyone raves about mafia 1 but I feel 2 is the better game then 3 in last place as its so bloody repetitive

Man it is wild how much the quality of monthly games has dropped since they announced the price increase. Makes no sense

@bindiana because there all on plus extra,people see that and upgrade to extra and sony makes more $$

Mafia 2 is a great game but I couldn’t finish it due to a critical bug in one of the final missions (I own all 3 Mafia games). Tried Aliens on Game Pass back in the day, not my cup of tea. Oh well, I still have to finish Callisto Protocol and play Weird West from October so I’m good.

I really stopped complaining about the low quality of the games offered a while ago and just lived with it. That was then, now after the giant price increases I need to see nothing but quality! Where's the extra money going towards as is clearly not going in improving the selection?

@OScube Everyone understands that it is games for no additional charge instead of free. Free is just short hand for something that is universally understood.

Respectfully: I don’t understand why this is always being raised for a service that is almost a decade and a half old. Everyone gets it.

@Pranwell this had a few bugs in day 1, I think.
I didn't play it myself yet, but it's supposed to be very good.

Cool, Sony raises PS+ prices 30% then gives us this. If this keeps going I'm not renewing my subscription in February.

I already own Aliens and i recommend trying it as its a really fun game.

Mafia 2, maybe aliens will be played

I think we should all ponder the possibility that Sony is putting some less than stellar games on PS+ Essential in the hopes that people upgrade to Extra or Premium if they really want to rent games b/c Sony knows people HAVE TO pay for Essential if they want to play online. 🤑

This is why you don't buy games that leave PlayStation extra. They just threw Mafia 2 onto essential now...

@Olmaz not sure what conversation you’re trying to have. Your initial post called it a terrible month and really scraping the bottom of the barrel. And I’d have to argue against what is probably an insane backlog. Mafia 2 and Fireteam Elite are good solid mid-range games. Not sure about DBZ The Breakers, but it seems like a run-of-the-mill asymmetrical hide-and-seek.
Mid month, for sure. Terrible? Bottom of the barrel? That’s hyperbole at best.

Now, if you’re taking the price increase into consideration, I can see your point. But you went in on age and what you deem to be lesser quality. Sure Mafia 2 shows its age - but it’s still a good story and is worthy of a playthrough. Fireteam Elite is good mindless fun (it was on Xbox anyway).

Probably not what we should expect from a higher-costing Plus Essential…but still good games in their own right.

Maybe Sony just doesn’t want me to sub anymore. Sure feels that way. 😕

@MonkeyDLuffy19 it's supposed to as it's an international release and it says it does on the play-asia store.

@Dusk_Actual feel like your arguing just to argue, this is pure garbage, a.i. could script a better story for a game of hangman than whoever wrote the mafia storyline, mafia is what you get when you take the fun and entertainment from gta and saints and keep all the bugs and combine them

As someone who started Mafia 2 a long time ago on PS3 but never finished it, I'm kinda stoked about getting it this month.

Chef’s kiss, Sony! Another selection of utter ***** that I’ll never play.

@bobbycracky Ooookay. Now I remember why I don’t comment here often

So glad they raised the prices so they could continue to offer these top-shelf bangers...

December better be amazing after this😱

Ouch. Thankfully my backlog is bursting will some great games, so oh well

All that extra subscription money being put to good use, I see. More proof that cancelling my subscription was the best move for me.

This month does not rate very highly for me. I might try the titles or not at all.

Was hoping it was the more recent Alien game ...shame

@Olmaz mafia 2 is amazing no matter what. Although everyone that loves mafia have played it already, but it's must play for people that haven't and love such type of games.

Normally there's one game I'm at least reasonably interested to try but this month seems poor. Played Mafia 2 a few times already and the Dragonball game looks terrible.
Maybe the Aliens game will be a fun blast for a few evenings? Anyone played it and recommends it?
The big game this month will be Teardown coming later in the month to Plus Extra.

Utter ****.....

Still, that seems to be getting par for the course from Fony these days.

After Spider-Man 2 I can’t go back to outdated games.. I’ve been spoiled and ruined.. F you Sony for making amazing first party titles and giving us crappy free games for $800 a year!

Well, this solidifies my decision to let it lapse. Will likely sign up in a year or so when the catalogue is back, or just do a month here and there should VR2 games be added.

Complete trash

@RBRTMNZ Well played.

This is a great month for me. Mafia 2 I have great memories of, the other two are games I wanted to try but not pay for which is surely the exact purpose of ps plis

another lost month. If they remade Scarface for the ps4/ps5 then I'd be a happy man, but mafia 2...meh.

On the one hand, these feel worse (just my personal opinion) than the predictions I was seeing: Midnight Suns, Plague Tale Requiem, Forspoken, etc. On the other hand, I don't have any of these, so maybe it'll be worth a look.

Aliens will get tried; was looking at buying but playing solo, so having it on plus means I’m forking out any additional money.

Mafia 2 remastered is an interesting choice as this version totally panned in the Push Square review and I’ve still got the PS3 version from Plus many years ago!

The other game doesn’t pique my interest.

Whilst the ‘there’s something for everyone’ mantra, I remember getting AA & AAA games on PS+ for PS3 and PS4 more often than not whereas now Sony doesn’t appear to be upping their gaming quality to justify the PS+ price increase.

Very meh month. Hopefully Sony end the year with a bang.

Let’s be honest, they could’ve announced that super Mario wonder was one of the surprise PS plus games this month in 80% of these comments would be like oh I can’t believe that. Unbelievable this little kid crap. They could surprise release an old PlayStation IP brand new game and everyone would be like oh is it coming physical because if it’s only digital I’m never gonna play it. If it was coming out physical as well, they be complaining about the frame rate or the resolution. Nobody working for a video game company could ever take a comment section serious, because regardless of what they do. They are effed.

uff - these titles hurt after the price rise

@Adol-Bannings despite your hyperbole, I don't think it's unreasonable to complain about a bad month. Tbf on the community, when we have a good PS plus month, the comments are generally positive. Its a poor month, the comments will be negative.

Yikes. Even as a dragon ball fan who hasn't played any of these... I don't think Ill even add them to my library. I just pay to do multi-player anyway

never thought i’d see the day where mafia 2 was considered trash

@RBRTMNZ I don't even feel like they're free. I don't play online much at all outside of enjoying seeing the ghosts or reading signs in dark souls. I pretty much subbed for a year for that and for these games. Regretting it now

Mafia 2 (amusingly dished out on the borderline anniversary of leaving Extra) seems like the main event here, although I see commenters here turn up their noses even towards it now - based on a Metacritic "score", no less! Did fans not swear by this game when they needed it to bark at the third entry in comparison? Face it, even a lineup of Horizon, Spider-Man and GTA 5 will be "scraping the barrel" in your eyes.

Between the expected heavy online focus and the already existing Switch port, I don't see myself downloading Breakers but the Aliens game might receive some spotlight someday as its respective Switch incarnation is a glorified streaming app. For now, though, Mafia 2 is the only one that might actually compel me to delete something from the packed PS4 storage (and its free space calculation UI from Mars🙄); as with most Switch-absent third party stuff these days, its full playthrough is a Deck prospect, but my Deck storage is routinely packed at the moment as well.😅

I'll happily take Mafia 2. That makes two out of the three games that have been given away on Essential this year (Mafia 1 back in February).

No interest in the other 2, but it's still a decent month when there's at least something. With all the new games coming out, I'm good anyways.

Well... Aliens Fireteam was the worst spend money I've done in PS5 era (Yes, I also bought Werewolf, Necromunda and D&D Dark Alliance).

Mafia 2 will just fit into collection (maybe never touched)

And Dragonwhat? I exactly don't know these anime or manga or whatever it is...

4/10, and 2 6/10 games. Hard pass, pitiful choice.

@Jonnyl you’re a Nintendo fan go back to the Metroid prime release and read those comments that’s one of the best remasters in the current day and 50% of those comments are bitching about the lack of credits for the original team that did it, and the way the doors look. The entire world was waiting for tears of a kingdom the day it comes out the majority of the comment are calling it DLC. Both fantastic amazing games. Both spit on by the community.

My PS Plus subscription lapses this month, and not a moment too soon after seeing this month's list of included games.

Not good enough. Don't get me wrong Mafia 2 is great but that game gets massive discounts already. And Alien:Fireteam you need at least a friend to play with because playing by yourself with the Ai is annoying still.

@Dusk_Actual OK, I'll grant you the hyperbole, that's generally the way I express disappointment.
As for the rest, I guess I can't confirm without trying any of the games, but from the reviews and let's play I've seen, I'm far from convinced by "it’s still a good story", "good mindless fun" and "run-of-the-mill asymmetrical hide-and-seek".

As per this site (to avoid advertising for other sites) :
Mafia II : 4/10 - this is the worst remaster of the PS4 generation

Aliens Fireteam Elite : 6/10 - It’s a fun squad shooter with just about enough features at launch to keep you coming back to replay missions and tackle the horde mode. However, it’s not the strongest game of its type and really doesn't seem to fit the license.

Dragon Ball The Breakers : 6/10 - Poor tutorial / Obtrusive camera / Janky controls / High cost for in-game items / Even basic items require grinding

I'm sure each of these games may have qualities that appeals to fan of their genre/IP, but I'm really don't think they can be called pretty good in any way. I'm glad some people will enjoy them, but I doubt this will be the majority of PS+ subscribers.

This shouldn't be what we're ok with for the price of PS+ Essentials, even before the price hike. And unless we make our disappointment very clear to Sony, there's no reason for them to stop this.

@nhSnork "I see commenters here turn up their noses even towards it now - based on a Metacritic "score", no less! Did fans not swear by this game when they needed it to bark at the third entry in comparison? Face it, even a lineup of Horizon, Spider-Man and GTA 5 will be "scraping the barrel" in your eyes."

As I think this was directed towards me, I'll answer a bit. While I'd agree Metacritic is not the end-it-all of scoring sites, it can gives you a general idea of the appeal of a game (with some surprises, of course). I also in subsequent comments pointed out Pushsquare's scores. And yes, scoring games will always be a flawed endeavor, but it's sadly the only way to summarize the quality and appeal of a game without going through a lengthy explanation.

As for you last sentence, that's just very silly. I have applauded what PS+ offered before, and I've always made it clear it was an excellent deal a few years before. But yes, Sony going into the sub 7/10 games for all 3 games on Essential is "scraping the barrel" (see it as an hyperbole if you want, the message stands).

@Geep Sorry what?

Eric Lempel says you should be deleighted that this price increase will help bring quality games and a huge library of loved classics to Plus. Its never been better. Time Sony kicks all of these out of touch with the consumer CEO's. I have nothing against them or even Jim Ryan as a person, and they may have all did a great job in their previous roles, but none of them current on the US/Euro side is right for the job.

They shelled out for a bloated bug riddled version of mafia 2 over knack 2?

I'll never understand this abysmal decision-making.

So did they ever sort out the worst of the gameplay glitches in this Mafia 2 port or is it a bit like the Blacksad port wherein you're just rolling the dice & hope for the best?

Every month, I'm reminded why I'm no longer with PS+. Every month, I hope to be proven wrong. Gamepass gets Starfield, Forza, Amnesia and Persona. PS+ gets broken, decade old 3PS games. Seriously now, c'mon.

Sony on PS Plus Price Increase: We Want to Make PlayStation Plus Great. Also Sony puts completely crap on PS Plus essential just few weeks before Black Friday discount where most users decide if they will renew their subscription for another year.

Donuts

Another disappointing month from my perspective.

Favorites over the past few years include:

Quirky/weird/fun:
Bugsnax
Sackboy
Heavenly Bodies
Toem
Tony Hawk
Overcooked
Maquette
Concrete Genie
Olli Olli World
Yakuza Like a Dragon

Single player Action:
Plague Tale
Control
Superhot
Jedi Fallen Order
Little Nightmares
Mass Effect Remastered
Death’s Door
Endling
Minecraft Dungeons
Alan Wake
Shadow of Tomb Raider

Sony can I have more of THIS?

Instead of messing about with higher tiers, wish Fony would release a PS+ Online edition that just grants you the ability to play online and backup saves. I could quite easily do without these dire games.

I'm sure a lot will like this. I'll probably give Mafia 2 a shot as 1 was a very good game but that's about it.

@RBRTMNZ they aren't free.

MAFIAII is wonderful, that 4/10 review was at launch when it had so many bugs. Right now it's a 8+ easily.

Before i had a PS5 i'd look at the garbage games i got free with Xbox and be jealous of the bangers PS was giving away. Now i have a PS5 and subbed for a year for online (mostly for Demon's Souls/ Bloodborne) and the monthly games. And i don't event want to waste the space downloading these, why add to what i scroll through with games i will never open even once

@FEWGEE1 That’s the type of entitlement that will have you upset at life. These games are not the thing you’re paying for, they’re an add on perk to the thing you’re paying for. And if you’re paying for essential with the expectation that the games given away at no additional cost will justify the purchase, well you’ve been given more than enough information at this point to know that’s usually a bad use of your money.

I started with premium, downgraded to extra and this is my last month on extra before I go to essential. If I could lose the monthly free games and just pay for online I would. The games released over the last few months dont justify the price, which has also gone up a month ago. Its shocking there is no Last of Us 1 or 2 X Box game pass get a brand new racing game and GT 7 which is not far from 2 years old is nowhere near PS plus.

@Reptilio i hear ya. but you can add the games to your account from the psn website in which case there is no need to download them. that way, they will always be tied to your account and you can download them in the future if you change your mind (and not take up valuable storage space in the process).

The Mafia II remaster is an abysmal entry and game, Aliens underperformed as a World War Z clone while DB is such a niche game.